Federal Judge: NYC's 'Stop and Frisk' lawsuit is now a class action suit

Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin's opinion stated that the evidence presented showed that the central tenets that make up the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy led to many illegal stops:

It is rather audacious of the NYPD to argue that if it were possible to protect "the right of people to be secure in their persons" from unlawful searches and seizures by the NYPD, then the legislature would already have done so and judicial intervention would therefore be futile. Indeed, it is precisely when the political branches violate the individual rights of minorities that "more searching judicial enquiry" is appropriate. 


So the class action suit moves forward, a stinging rebuke to police commissioner Ray Kelly and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg who seemed, well, testy after being asked about it while hanging out with Mr. Met:

As of today, we're 135 days into the year, I think we've had 135 murders. If it were to stay at this rate, we'd have 50% less than when we came into office—I can't conceive of it staying at this rate though. We continue to do everything we can that's legal to keep this city safe so you can walk in any neighborhood in this city, and not have to worry about getting shot or a bullet coming through your door...

Uh, Mayor, you have zero proof these guns you took off the streets saved ANY lives. Trying to equate a gun off the street with keeping a murder from happening isn't reality, it's a Tom Cruise movie. Your specious reasoning really drags the topic into the gutter.

Actually Mayor Bloomberg, your reasoning doesn't hold up at all when it comes to the murder rate:

In 2002, when Mr. Kelly last took office, officers stopped 97,296 New Yorkers and the city reported 587 homicides. Last year, those numbers were 685,724 and 532.

What huh? Mayor would you like to go over your ridiculous statements on 'Stop and Frisk' again? The judge allowed class action status because you and your BFF Ray Kelly are trampling people's constitutional rights in holding these bogus stop and frisks. You're really only stopping people of color with a full 87% of these stops made on against minorities.

Ya know who gets caught the most at the stop and frisks with weapons? White people, and yet 87% are persons of color stops. Huh? Mayor, do you have anything to say on this matter? Of course you don't but let's dig deeper into the numbers on stop and frisk:

*Nine out of 10 of those stopped in 2011 were neither arrested nor given summonses.

*Nearly 150,000 stops have been unconstitutional (Which brought on this class action suit).

*NYPD can actually stop and frisk you in your building.

The third term across the river, it really was a bad bad idea.